Laptsteel HQ...

And so it begins...

CNC pics...

Cheers Ryan!

Time to CNC!

Got wood, got plans... Now it's time to CNC!

Using the CNC machine at work and the expertise of one of my colleagues, we began CNC'ing the guitar. The machine routed out for the pick-up aswell as putting a wiring channel in for the pick-up switch (this will be hidden by the scratch-plate). Next the machine followed the guitars outline, taking several passes to reach almost the full depth of the timber blank. Once complete, we ran a Stanley blade around the outline to free the guitar from the timber blank...

Timber!

After looking over quite a few lengths of left-over wood in the timber stores where I work, we planed down several lengths until we found some Ash that had a good pattern and didn't have any ugly knots or streaks. Cut to a manageable size and planed down to 44mm thick.

Cheers Slash!

Plans...

After checking out plenty of downloaded explorer plans, I resized and shuffled around the original layout to produce my lapsteel design.

The hardest part to work out was the control location: I wanted the volume and tone knobs to remain in a position that looked as similar to the full sized explorer design as possible. The problem was arranging them to fit nicely whilst allowing enough room for the control cavity on the rear.

You can also see that I've exchanged the Explorer headstock for a Flying V style. I think it's worked out pretty well!

Post No.1

So here it is, my first post of a blog documenting the making of my first guitar...

a Gibson Explorer shaped lapsteel!

After seeing a website explaining how to make a lapsteel, I thought it would be a good intro into building my own guitars. The lapsteel on the website was a pretty standard 'plank' shape guitar, but as I work at a company that has a timber workshop an a CNC machine, I thought I'd go for building something a bit more adventurous.

I like the idea of making a guitar in a shape that personified 'rock' - a '58 Gibson Explorer, but also mixing it with a lapsteel, which I see as a quite laid back, country and western instrument. I also like the way that a guitar that was designed in the 50's still looks modern and futuristic today.

I searched the web and downloaded a few sets of explorer plans. I work as a draughtsman, so it was simple for me to knock out a CAD drawing of the shape I was looking for, printed out some 1:1 scale drawings to check over.

Whilst doing this I was checking the internet to find out what hardware early Explorer's and Flying V's used. I checked out a lot of forums for images (links, links, links!)

I scoured Ebay and a few online guitar hardware shops and managed to get some good deals on gold hardware and a bargain second-hand Gibson humbucker. I'll post a list of my purchases in a future post.

When drawing the guitar up, I wanted a Gibson scale length (24 3/4"), but I also wanted a small body as it was a lapsteel. Before I could produce my CNC drawing file I really needed to get all of the hardware dimensions, so that I could make sure that all pieces would fit together without clashing, making sure that control cavity would work and that the bridge would work out.

I decided to follow the instructions on the 'Build your own Lapsteel' website and go for a 'wrap-around' bridge, the type used on early Les Paul & SG Juniors. I wanted to make the body as small as possible, and I think this bridge reduced the overall length of the guitar, whilst remaining 'Gibson'-like. Of course, I had to get a gold one to keep in-line with the hardware look!

Another change I made from the original Explorer silhouette was to change the headstock shape. Instead of going for the original six-a-side headstock, which I didn't think would work with the lapsteel construction, I opted to use a Flying V style. Both guitars were launched at the same time, so I think it stays in keeping with the design.

More soon...